At certain moments in life, we sometimes realise that the image that we have chosen – or rather that we desire for ourselves – looks down on us and forces us, as defendants, to take the stand in a trial to which we have decided to be subjected.
The play by the company LAB121, presented as part of NEXT – Workshop for ideas for the production and programming of entertainment in Lombardy, is a voyage though the dreams and realities of these movements within the human soul. Dostoevsky’s play remains topical for its representation of two ordinary men who find themselves battling with the fear of not being good enough for society, of not meeting the expectations of others or, worse still, of themselves. On stage, this bitter and self-destructive battle with one’s own ghosts takes the form of a dialogue between the lead character, Alexei, and Pavel, a grotesque past acquaintance.
Through theatre and cinema, live action and archive film, the tale unfolds in a series of encounters between the two antagonists, like a game of chess, playing for the certainty of salvation or eternal loss. A session of psychoanalysis from before Freud presented his theories, a confirmation of the literary brilliance of Dostoevsky expressed though a lesser-known work worthy of exploration.